


The Things You Need

by JoMouse



Series: Imagine Sterek Events [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Architect Derek Hale, Don't copy to another site, Kindergarten Teacher Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Mutual Pining, Surprises, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22704382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Derek discovers that Stiles, the kindergarten teacher he rents a room from, hates Valentine's Day.Day 4 ofImagine-Sterek's Valentine's Day Event. Theme: Be Mine.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Imagine Sterek Events [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586374
Comments: 23
Kudos: 343





	The Things You Need

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and Salutations.
> 
> I had no idea where I was going with this story, but I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Big huge thanks to my beta [Marie for being amazing. Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em. xx-Joey](http://quietzap.tumblr.com)

Derek watched as the man he rented a room from sat at the kitchen table of his home cutting the slot into the top of an old shoebox. When he was done, he glanced up at Derek and smiled. “Welcome home,” he greeted.

It was still weird to hear this man who had been a near-stranger when Derek had rented the room a year earlier greet him that way, but despite the fact they used to be strangers, he had grown to consider them friends. “Hey.” He glanced around the kitchen trying to find a space that wasn’t covered with cooling heart-shaped cookies or bits and pieces of art supplies. Living with a kindergarten teacher was a messy experience, but he wouldn’t trade it for the cleanest room in the house.

He opened the fridge, smiling at the plate covered in plastic, a post-it note with his name on it, relieved he wouldn’t have to make himself dinner; he was getting used to Stiles cooking for him. “Thanks for this,” he said as he put it into the microwave for a couple of minutes before returning to the fridge to get a can of Coke. 

He leaned against the counter while the plate heated, watching Stiles begin wrapping the top of the box with red paper, tongue between his teeth as he tried to keep the edges neat. When the microwave beeped, he took out his plate and got a fork out of a drawer and settled across the table from Stiles as he began wrapping the bottom of the box with white paper.

“What are you doing?” he asked. It wasn’t unusual for Derek to come home and find Stiles working on some unusual project or another, it had been one of the things he’d warned him about when he’d come to check out the room, but this was the first one he couldn’t readily identify.

Stiles looked up, eyes squinted in confusion. “Didn’t you do Valentine’s Day parties in school?” Stiles asked.

“Homeschooled, remember?” Derek said, taking a bite of the pasta concoction on his plate and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh of pleasure. “This is so good.” He opened his eyes in time to catch Stiles looking back down at the box quickly. 

“Well, it’s a mailbox for Valentines,” Stiles explained. “The kids worked on theirs today, but my old example got a big damaged in storage this year, so I thought I’d make a new one tonight and put it on my desk tomorrow in case one of the kids wants to give me a Valentine.” He frowned as he said it.

“I bet your mailbox is always stuffed full,” Derek said as Stiles picked up a sheet of heart-shaped stickers and began to place them randomly over the lid of the box. 

“I get a few, usually the ‘#1 Teacher’ one that’s included in all of the boxes of Valentine Day cards the kids buy for their friends.” He picked up a white paint marker and began writing “Mr. S” on the top of the box between the stickers.

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

He smiled, but the corners of his lips were tight. “It’s great. I love that the kids do it; I’ve just never been a huge fan of the holiday.”

That surprised Derek. Stiles got excited about every holiday that had passed since he’d moved in, the house going through constant redecoration depending on the closest one, but as he looked around he realized there were no decorations currently in the house. “Not big on Hallmark holidays?”

Stiles huffed out a silent laugh. “It’s not that. When I was a kid, I used to look forward to it. I’d make my mailbox and have my mom buy me three or four different boxes of cards and I’d spend hours picking cards for each of my classmates and signing my name.” He picked up a pink pipe cleaner and began wrapping it around a pencil while he talked. “And every year, I’d walk past each desk, shoving the cards into other people’s mailboxes before returning to my desk. I’d watch all the other kids open their boxes, dumping out piles of cards and candy.” He frowned as he pulled the pipe cleaner off the pencil and used a hot glue gun to stick one end to the box top so it stood up in a spiral that he tapped with his finger and watched it wiggle.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Derek said, wishing not for the first time he’d had at least a couple of years in public school because that sounded like fun.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Stiles commented, his smile wry. “Then I’d pull the lid off of my box and there would only be one or two valentines, usually from Scott and another random kid whose parents had filled out the cards based on the class list the teacher sent home.” Derek knew Scott had been Stiles’ best friend since childhood so he wasn’t surprised there was a card from him.

“Oh,” Derek said, picturing the young boy he’d seen in photos around the house sitting at his desk staring into a box like the one between them, frowning at the contents, tiny little heart breaking. He had to rub at his eyes while Stiles was focusing on cutting out a red heart from construction paper to avoid tears from spilling over.

One thing that he had discovered living with Stiles was that he never let people know when he was hurting, so he knew that little Stiles would force a smile onto his face and listen to the other kids talk about all the cards they’d received while putting away his own box without drawing attention to it.

“It wouldn’t have been so bad, but even Scott didn’t think about which cards he gave to people. He just wrote his name at the bottom of each one and left the envelopes blank and stuff them in each box,” Stiles explained as he glued the heart to the end of the pipe cleaner holding it in place. “Hey, can you grab me a beer?”

Derek opened his mouth to argue, Stiles never drank on school nights, but the shine in his eyes stayed Derek’s objections and he rose to his feet to grab a beer for Stiles, twisting the cap off before handing it over. “Just once, I wanted a valentine that was specially chosen just for me.” He shrugged. “Pipe dreams of a kid full of romantic notions.”

He stood and tapped the neck of the bottle to his forehead in salute before disappearing from the kitchen. Derek heard Stiles’ bedroom door close quietly down the hall. Frowning, Derek stared at the box, wishing he could bring Stiles’ smile back. He had already thought about getting something for him the next day on the way home from work, maybe finally telling Stiles he’d developed a bit of a crush on him, especially since his year lease was almost up so if it went badly, he wouldn’t have to embarrass himself for long before moving out and into one of the places he’d been looking at closer to the architecture firm he’d been working at as a temp but had recently been hired on full time.

He debated skipping the holiday altogether since it seemed to make Stiles sad, but as he looked over the mailbox and the details he’d put into it, the stickers and the glitter and the bouncing hearts, he suspected that there was still a lot of hope for Stiles about the holiday. As he reached out and bounced one of the pipe cleaners, an idea came to him. He put his dish in the dishwasher and grabbed his keys, heading out the door and to his car.

+++

Stiles smacked at his alarm, frowning as he squinted at the time and tasted the stale beer in his mouth. He already regretted drinking the night before, knowing it would make him cranky and that ran the risk of him ruining the kids’ excited moods for the holiday and the party at school. Groaning, he climbed out of bed and headed into the shower to wash a bit of the ‘ugh’ off before slipping into his clothes for work, including a black vest covered with red and silver hearts and a silver bow tie. It was a bit over the top, but the kids always loved it.

As he was walking toward the kitchen, he remembered leaving the cookies out on the counter the night before, without even decorating them. Glancing at the clock, he knew he wouldn’t have time so the kids would have to be satisfied with plain sugar cookies. 

He froze as he stepped into the kitchen and found Derek at the kitchen table, face down and a piping bag in his hand. Spread across the kitchen, two dozen sugar cookies were decorated with red, pink and white icing and individually wrapped in plastic bags sealed with red ties. Each cookie had a set of initials on them and Stiles noticed a copy of his class list that he’d used to fill out valentines sitting on the table next to Derek’s hand and a cookie with “Mr. S” written on it.

Shaking his head, he ran a hand through his hair. He shouldn’t be surprised that Derek did this, the man had been extremely kind from the first day he’d shown up on Stiles’ doorstep to answer an ad for a room to rent. He’d only put out the ad because the house was too quiet after his ex-boyfriend had up and left him after saying he was too immature and hid behind his profession to get away with it.

It hadn’t taken long for Stiles to genuinely like Derek and even less time for him to develop a killer crush that he spent a lot of brainpower on denying, but as he looked at what Derek must have spent all night doing for him, despite the fact that he had to work that day, he wasn’t sure he could keep his emotions in check anymore.

Reaching out, he shook Derek’s shoulder gently. “Hey, Derek. Wake up, dude.”

“Don’t call me ‘dude’,” he mumbled, sitting up, and Stiles had to laugh at the cookie that was stuck to the side of his face and the way his hair was standing up all over his head. He glowered at Stiles and then reached up to the side of his face when Stiles pointed and pulled away the cookie, leaving a red and pink heart stained into his stubble.

“Thank you,” he said, all other words escaping him. 

“You’re very welcome,” Derek said, stretching and grabbing Stiles’ mailbox and handing it to him. “Do you have time for breakfast before work?”

“I do, but I doubt you do,” he said. “Especially since you have a heart to wash off your face. 

Groaning, Derek touched his face. “Eh, fuck it. I called into work today anyway.” He stood up from the table and grabbed his coat. “I’ll drop you off after we eat.”

“Derek. Go wash your face and brush your hair. I’ll get all this into the car while you do.” He hesitated. “Would you like to help in my classroom today?” It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been there, the kids had loved listening to him talk about his job and having him help them draw buildings.

Derek nodded and disappeared toward his bedroom, grinning.

Stiles was sitting in the passenger seat when Derek came out, dressed in dark jeans and a black shirt with a silver heart on it. “We match,” Stiles teased when he got behind the wheel.

“Funny, that,” Derek commented as he started the car and headed toward the diner that was on the way to school. “Bring the box,” he directed Stiles when they got there.

“Oh-kay,” Stiles said, following his directions and following him into the diner. The waitress that usually waited on them when they came in for breakfast on Stiles’ days off waved at them and pointed to their usual table which already held two cups of coffee and a plate of cinnamon rolls, heart-shaped confetti dusted across the center of the table. “What is all this?”

Derek sat down and gestured to the other side of the booth. Stiles slid in, setting the box next to him on the bench. Their waitress came over and laid plates of heart-shaped pancakes in front of each of them. Stiles gaped at everything and looked up at Derek.

“What is all this?” he repeated.

“This is the kind of Valentine’s Day you deserve, but your real gift is there.” He pointed towards the box.

Stiles picked up the box and set it on the table as Derek moved his plate of pancakes out of the way. He slid it back and forth between his hands a couple of times, hearing for the first time the shuffle of papers inside. Looking up at Derek in wonder, he pulled off the top of the box to reveal that it was full to the brim with envelopes.

“Open them,” Derek said, taking a bite of a cinnamon roll.

Stiles picked the first one off the top to reveal a card shaped like a popsicle that said “Have a sweet Valentine’s Day” and said “scratch and sniff” so Stiles did, wrinkling his nose. “Smells like fake strawberry.”

“Shut up,” Derek said, laughing and cutting off a piece of pancake and holding the fork out to Stiles who hesitated before leaning forward to take the piece off with his mouth, smiling when Derek did.

He reached in for the next card, which was actually a pencil topper wrapped around a blue pencil. The card had a bottle of ketchup hugging a carton of fries and said, “Bright and Happy.” “I love fries.”

“I tried to find one with curly fries, but there were only so many to choose from,” Derek said, smiling as Stiles moved onto the next card.

“Where did you go?”

Derek narrowed his eyes in thought. “I started at the drug store and then the department store and eventually every twenty-four-hour convenience store in town.”

“When did you do all this?” Stiles asked, continuing to open cards and smile at each of them, something about each one meaning something special to him. It was clear Derek had thought long and hard before choosing each one.

“Last night,” Derek said, holding out another bite of pancake but Stiles just stared at him.

“Before or after that cookies?” he asked, mouth hanging open and the straw from his drink falling out of it.

“Before,” he said. “Well, during. I’d decorate a few and then sign a couple of cards, decorate a few more, etc.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Derek countered, grinning as he saw Stiles finally reached for the last card.

“There has to be at least thirty cards in here,” he said.

“Twenty-seven,” Derek countered. “One for every crappy Valentine’s Day you ever had.” 

“Derek,” Stiles breathed out, tears flowing from his eyes. “I think I might love you.” Stiles’ eyes widened. “Did I just say that out loud?”

Derek chuckled. “You did. Read that one,” he said, gesturing to the last envelope and watching as Stiles ripped it open and pulled out the car with Darth Vader on it, squealing happily and grinning up at Derek.

“It is your destiny to be mine,” Stiles read aloud, ducking his head and cheeks turning a bright red as he put the card back into the box and slid out of the booth to move over and sit next to Derek, throwing his arms around him in a hug and crying lightly into his neck as Derek held onto him, rubbing a hand over his back. 

“I mean it,” he said when Stiles’ tears slowed down. “I really believe it.”

“I don’t believe it because I never get the things I want,” Stiles whispered, afraid if he spoke too loudly, the spell that had fallen over their table would shatter.

“But you do get the things you need,” Derek told him, pointing at himself before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his lips, the kiss ending far too soon because neither one of them could stop smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me at josjournal on tumblr!!!!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are food for the writer's soul.


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